When Green Bay played the Bears in the playoffs, were you rooting for the Packers so much that you were certain they would win? This tendency to believe our favorite teams and groups are more likely to win is called “wishful thinking bias.”
The last several years have seen an increasing concern about the health effects of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or long-lasting “forever chemicals”) in consumer products and drinking water. As a persuasion and advice communication researcher, Communication Arts Professor Lyn van Swol became interested in applying her research to improve human health. In partnership with …
The Spring 2026 semester has reached its end, and with it, countless Communication Arts students have hit “submit” on their final assignments for the year. In Professor Kelley Conway’s Film Festivals course, students had the opportunity to get creative with their final project. Rather than solely offering an option for students to write a research …
Three UW–Madison Communication Arts students exemplify the unseen labor powering the ‘best college radio station in the country.’
Our 4W Innovators and Emerging Scholars grants program supports the work of UW-Madison faculty, staff, and graduate students. All people who are working to foster gender equity and wellbeing are eligible to apply.
Over the last decade, socioeconomic collapse in Venezuela has provoked the largest displacement crisis in the Americas, sending millions across borders in search of stability and opportunities. This research investigated the experiences of twelve Venezuelan migrant families who recently arrived in Denver, Colorado—an emerging and understudied site of large-scale migrant reception.
The new collective just picked up one of the first Wisconsin Exchange grants, which promotes dialogue across difference on campus.
In an era where disagreements often lead to division, Communication Arts is building space to practice having difficult conversations and deepen our understanding of others’ ideas as well as our own. This has made Communication Arts an important contributor to a new program championed by Chancellor Mnookin and Provost Zumbrunnen–the Wisconsin Exchange. In collaboration with …
If great stories can come from anywhere, why not Wisconsin? For the last three years, the Wisconsin Screenwriters’ Symposium has aimed to support writers and the great stories they create. Between panels with professional screenwriters and showrunners, a screenplay competition, and a week-long writers’ room workshop, the 2026 Symposium built on this momentum and has …
“The Telluride Film Festival is a magical event, taking over the small town almost completely, so the person at the table next to you at breakfast is pitching someone a script, you’re chatting for an hour with an indie film distributor in line for the global premiere of a future Oscar winner, or you brush …